Junnie Kim is a remote research intern at SMAHRT and will be presenting at the upcoming Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine 2025 Annual Meeting! We asked Junnie a little bit about her experience as an intern at SMAHRT and what she will be presenting at SAHM.
Tell us a little bit about yourself: university, year, major, academic
My name is Junnie (she/her), and I’m a junior at Brown University studying Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood. I’m hoping to go into medicine one day and continue supporting youth and young adults throughout my career!
How did you find SMAHRT?
I was first introduced to SMAHRT through a professor at my school who does similar social media research. After looking into SMAHRT, I decided to reach out about joining.
How does interning with SMAHRT support your future academic and career goals?
Something that’s super special about SMAHRT is how supportive everyone is! I’ve really enjoyed the professional development opportunities here, such as pursuing an independent research project, and the mentorship provided from the team. Everyone here is always happy to help!
What is it like being a completely remote intern?
I am super grateful to have the opportunity to be involved in this amazing work from a time zone away. This past summer, I had the opportunity to go in-person to the SMAHRT lab as well, so it was amazing to see everyone in real life!
SAHM 2025
What will you be presenting at SAHM and what is the purpose of the research?
I will be doing a poster presentation on the most common treatment tips on TikTok about relieving menstrual pain and the quality of that information. I used a tool to discern how reliable the information is, which was super interesting.
What are the findings and implications of the research?
Overall, what my research found was that people who are searching for menstrual pain relief information on TikTok are likely to find low quality information. I think this might not be the result we wanted to hear, but one that opens up lots of opportunities for health care professionals and social media companies to step in and do lots of good. This could include disseminating medically accurate and reliable information or directing users to additional information sources.
What is the most rewarding aspect of the research you’ve completed?
The most rewarding aspect is definitely finishing a project and realizing how much knowledge I’ve learned about a topic. Everything that’s done at SMAHRT, in some way, is working to help out young people out there, which is an amazing feeling!